Well, obviously the site went down yesterday for lack of bandwidth. With the onset of a new month, the site is back up for business, but I'm resigned to the fact that I have more serious server problems that need to be addressed in light of the site's recent growth. I am currently in the process of switching to a faster and more reliable server. Hopfully the process will be complete before the weekend is out.

In the meantime, it is Friday, so enjoy these pics from Jolly ol' Dublin!

Yup, double-decker buses - ain't they cool! I'm quite sorry to say that Dublin Bus is probably one of the worst systems of any city I've ever lived. The complete lack of scheduling aside, the entire bus system is shaped like spokes on a wagon wheel originating from City Centre (An Lar). This is fine if you want to go to or from downtown, but is utter crap if you want to go between any two other points in the city. Along with the lack of free transfers, it woulnd't be unusual to have to wait an hour or more to arrive at a destination that would have been 15 minutes by bike.

On a lighter note, if you look at the bus signs you may notice that the destinations are listed in Irish (Gaelic) as are all the signs around the country. Although Irish is rarely spoken in daily life, it is still the official national language which means that all public works and organizations operate bi-lingually. There is even a T.V. station called TG4 which is an all-Irish network (although they mostly show programming in English).

There is a spectacular short film about this called "Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom" - My name is Yu Ming where "A bored Chinese shopkeep learns Gaelic and moves to Dublin only to find the locals no longer speak their mother tongue." I highly recommend taking the 13 minutes to watch this film.

On the other hand, a short ride on Dublin bus can get you here:

and here: